What does 㫬 mean in 唯有中大夫楊元愼、給事中大夫王㫬是中原士族?

Question

I recently came across an article where a sinologist complained of not being able to understand the use of the character 㫬 in the following sentence:

彪亦是南人。唯有中大夫楊元愼、給事中大夫王㫬是中原士族。

The article describing the sinologist's troubles identifying the reason for this character being in the sentence follows:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=31859

Ever curious, I wondered if somebody here may be able to answer as to why this character is used in the sentence? And which of the alternative pronunciations: xuan, shun, xun, or something else would be used to say it?

Answer 1

Here "㫬" is the given name, and "王" is the family name.

So "彪亦是南人。唯有中大夫楊元愼、給事中大夫王㫬是中原士族。",

中大夫楊元愼 means, someone named 楊元愼 has a job position named "中大夫"

給事中大夫王㫬 means, someone named 王㫬 has a job position named "給事中大夫"

㫬 's pronunciation is: [xù] , the same with 续。

For further pronunciation questions, come to http://baidu.com and search this Chinese word. Frankly speaking, I don't know this word either. This word is used only as people's name. >_<

And, when you are reading 文言文， the context is very important. The job position "给事中大夫" is a guess by me.

Answer 2

㫬 is variant of 昫

说文解字

㫬

日出溫也。从日句聲。北地有昫衍縣。火于切。又，火句切

It said:

㫬: (日出溫也) warmth of the sun

(or warmth of sun rise? '日出' can mean 'sun produced' or 'sun rise').

• (从日)日 Radical
• (句聲) pronounce as 句 /[粵] geoi3 | [國] ju4/
• (北地有昫衍縣) There is a '昫衍 county' in northern part of China

As the other answers mentioned, 㫬 is the first name of 王㫬

Answer 3

Ever curious, I wondered if somebody here may be able to answer as to why this character is used in the sentence?

imo, it ought to be very easy, to identify "㫬" as the given name of mr 王.

though it's an uncommon character, it's used several times in literatures of yore:

in 左傳杜林合注　卷一　page 56　　

又八世至熊儀﹒是為若敖﹒又二世至熊㫬﹒是為 . . .

in 莊子注　卷二　page 128

㫬﹒音舜﹒驚貌目動也

personally, i would stop here (for the pronunciation), and accept "㫬" is pronounced as "舜", which is a common character.

well, for other meanings, there're several more steps, depends on my schedule, i might carry on, or skip it.

have fun　😼